What can you see, in your pee?
I’m vaguely familiar with the myth that your pee is essentially sterile. However, it turns out to be false. Dr. Linda Brubaker and colleagues examined the urine of 41 overactive bladder female patients and 24 control female patients. 48 of 65 of samples were negative, i.e., so-called sterile using standard urine culture procedures. However, using an expanded procedure, 80% of the samples were found to contain bacteria. I’m not a molecular biologist so I won’t try to explain the difference between the standard and expanded culture procedures. The interesting thing is that overactive bladder might be linked to changes in your microbiome. Again, we are learning more and more about the importance of our microbiome.
I’ve talked about microbiome before.
What’s buggin’ you?
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ChadHaney/posts/gYFZudc9K4L
Bugged about diet induced obesity
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ChadHaney/posts/Hn32hWR7jxP
Making a big stink
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ChadHaney/posts/3jgfBfsR8Fw
Sources:
Urine is not sterile: use of enhanced urine culture techniques to detect resident bacterial flora in the adult female bladder.
J Clin Microbiol. 2014 Mar;52(3):871-6
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24371246
Study debunks common myth that urine is sterile
Image source:
#ScienceSunday
May 18, 2014
Fascinating Chad Haney !
May 18, 2014
Yep, science is fascinating. Thanks Nikki C
May 18, 2014
I decided against telling you a story here about bladders, another day perhaps. You will laugh, alot! I may well blush too.
May 18, 2014
Save it for a hangout, Nikki C. We have fun hangouts with Yoon-Mi Kim, Gita Jaisinghani and Lacerant Plainer
May 18, 2014
Heh we do, we do. Although it’s mostly not bladder-talk, I don’t think!!
May 18, 2014
Gita Jaisinghani we need to invite someone with an overactive bladder, then it might become a topic.
May 18, 2014
wonders if that’s what Nikki C was talking about
May 18, 2014
Haahaa! I shall leave this story for another day & keep you all in suspense. Overactivity only occurs once alcohol has been consumed in my case 🙂
May 18, 2014
I’m a little unclear: there were two groups. Were the percentages the same for both groups?
May 18, 2014
If beer is involved in a hangout, there could be some jokes 😛 Oh btw very interesting. I did read some interesting stuff on the microbiome of your surroundings. On a chemistry note, urine was first used to find Phosphorous. But it needed to be concentrated and dried.
Was very stinky I believe.
May 18, 2014
Cindy Brown there were 41 with over active bladders and 24 control, or alleged regular functioning bladders. With the expanded procedure, 80% were found to have bacteria though, so that means that some of the regular functioning bladders had bacteria. I’m wondering how many of each group had the bacteria and how many didn’t. I don’t want to assume that all 41 OAB’s had the bacteria. Chad Haney, we need more data!
May 18, 2014
Bacteria were found in 52 of the 65, so both groups. I’ll see if there was a breakdown between the groups.
May 18, 2014
😀 Please. Cus I’m thinking that at least one of the OAB’s didn’t have bacteria. I’m guessing though.
May 18, 2014
I vaguely remember reading that urine generally IS sterile — till it hits the outer genitalia and the world at large on its exit.
?
May 18, 2014
Cindy Brown they used a transurethral catheter to get around that issue.
May 19, 2014
UTIs are common enough to suggest urine cannot be sterile.
May 19, 2014
Peter Barrett UTIs aren’t usually as far as the bladder. It’s fair to assume that the bladder and urine within it, is clean. However this study now demonstrates that is not the case.
May 19, 2014
cystitis is the most common UTI Chad Haney
May 19, 2014
A lot of people have IC and no one knows why. Maybe it’s bacteriuria after all 😉
May 19, 2014
We should have Nikki C in our next hangout! She can do a guest spot on bladders where we all have to chip in with our own story 😛
May 19, 2014
Any predominant bacterial groups in the cultures?
May 19, 2014
Akinola Emmanuel
The most prevalent genera isolated were Lactobacillus (15%), followed by Corynebacterium (14%), Streptococcus (11.9%), Actinomyces (6.9%), and Staphylococcus (6.9%)
May 19, 2014
I wonder how that would look in the urine sample of lactose intolerant people.
May 19, 2014
Sounds like you need to fill out some IRB forms, Akinola Emmanuel
May 19, 2014
No E. Coli Chad Haney ? really?
Most Bacteriuria cases turn up Escherichia, don’t they?
May 19, 2014
Only 3 of the 65 had E. Coli as far as I can tell.
May 19, 2014
Given the trillions of critters we obliviously cohabit these carcasses with, it seems inconceivable that any of our systems or products are truly sterile. We are vast aggregations of dynamic equilibria.
May 19, 2014
David Archer what about the fetus?